I came across this site some time ago and just stumbled on it again as I was going through my bookmarks. What a great program. The site is called Closer to Truch and is a collection of very well made videos that are made for TV and cover topics on God, Cosmos and Consciousness. This particular program is about 30 minutes long and covers the vastness of the universe.

The host of the show paints himself as a seeker of truth who is humbled by the sheer size of the universe. I identify greatly with him in many of his shows on this site. I love nature and the more I learn, the more interested I am to learn more about it through science. I am humbled myself at not just the size of the universe itself but also the enormity of the amount of knowledge that there is to be discovered about it and just how small I am in relationship to it all. I look back over my adult life and see how much I have learned over the years and see that I am really no closer to having a “full knowledge” of the world then I was 20 years ago. With Socrates, I can say,

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Watching this video just drives that home to me. To think about the fact that our solar system is only one of a billion or so solar systems in our milky way galaxy. And that our galaxy, which is enormous at 100,000 light years across, is only one of BILLIONS of similar galaxies in our KNOWN universe. I stress KNOWN because really, how much do we really know about the vastness of space? It is only through the hubble telescope that we are able to see as far as we can right now but when I think of a universe even the size of what we know, and think about this tiny little spec of a pale blue dot that we inhabit, and this relatively tiny piece of equipment that we are using to “see” what is out there, I am just blown away. How can we possibly get a solid grasp on the true dimensions of the universe… EVER? We could make a telescope the size of texas and although it would increase the amount of data that we have incredibly, we still are only looking at the universe from one angle and we are assessing the data with relatively little knowledge.

This doesn’t discourage me in the least. In fact, it makes me that much more curious. At the same time, I know that to speak with any kind of certainty about much of these things is pretty foolish.

Watch and enjoy! Be sure to check out some of the many other videos on this site as well.